The leaders of the seven major industrialized nations, at their meeting in Toronto, urged a "properly structured international conference" to bring about negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
"An early negotiated settlement to the underlying Arab-Israel dispute is essential," Canadian External Affairs Minister Joseph Clark said Monday.
Clark gave a summary of the discussions between the leaders and their foreign ministers on the Middle East.
The seven leaders praised Secretary of State George Shultz’s current Middle East initiative, Clark said, and agreed that "convening of a properly structured international conference" was "the appropriate framework for the necessary negotiations between the parties directly concerned."
Clark did not explain what was meant by a "properly structured" conference. At the recent Moscow summit, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev differed on the structure of the summit.
The United States, supported by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, wants the type of conference that would facilitate direct negotiations between Israel and the Arabs and not dictate or veto any agreement reached by them.
The Soviets back the Arabs in preferring a conference that would actually negotiate a settlement. Israeli Premier Yitzhak Shamir opposes an international conference on the grounds that the Soviets would seek to force a settlement harmful to Israel.
An international conference would include three of the Toronto summit participants — the United States, Britain and France, who are all members of the United Nations Security Council. The other four summit participants are Canada, Italy, Japan and West Germany.
STATUS QUO NOT SUSTAINABLE
In his statement Monday, Clark said the leaders expressed their "deep concern at the increasing instability in the Near East. The current violence in the occupied territories is a clear sign that the status quo is not sustainable."
Clark’s statement on the Middle East, which also included summaries of the leaders’ discussions on South Africa and Cambodia, was separate from a political declaration, which he also read and which centered on East-West relations.
The declaration took note of improved East-West relations, and welcomed progress in arms control, but it stressed that much more remains to be done in this area.
The declaration said that "genuine peace cannot be established solely by arms control," but also requires Soviet and East European improvements in human rights, including emigration policies.
Peace "must be firmly based on respect for fundamental human rights," the declaration added. "We urge the Soviet Union to move forward in ensuring human dignity and freedoms and to implement fully and strengthen substantially its commitments under the Helsinki process.
"Recent progress must be enshrined in law and practice, the painful barriers that divide people must come down, and the obstacles to emigration must be removed."
The declaration also gave support to increased East-West trade.
At a news briefing later, Rozanne Ridgway, assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian affairs, said this does not mean that the United States was considering abandoning the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which denies U.S. most-favored-nation trade status to the Soviet Union until emigration figures increase substantially.
"We have no plans except to enforce Jackson-Vanik," Ridgway said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
